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vol. num. 44 lang. eshttp://www.scielo.org.za/img/en/fbpelogp.gifhttp://www.scielo.org.za
Grappling with the structural from a situated perspective]]>http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1015-60462013000100001&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es
The aims of this article are threefold. Firstly, the article is an attempt to contribute to discussions about what a Marxist psychology might look like, from an impression of Marx and Marxism generally having much too little to say about people's everyday lives and the situated and practical aspects of people's mental life. Secondly, the article links this discussion to the relationship between method and critical thinking and the importance of a critical position that does not voice critique from some potentially totalizing platform, nor from some detached position of "nowhere". The former is a risk in much Marxist theorizing. The latter is a risk in much post-structuralist critique, as discussed in relation to the work of Michel Foucault. Finally, taking a point of departure in an empirical example and ideas from German-Danish critical psychology, the text's overall ambition is to outline and discuss how a subject-scientific psychology can include and develop its attention to the organizational, structural and political dimensions of people's everyday lives."A lot of them are good buggers": the African "foreigner" as South Africa's discursive Other]]>http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1015-60462013000100002&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es
Levels of xenophobia in South Africa have risen precipitously since the early 1990s, but this phenomenon does not appear to have been researched rigorously within psychology. This exploratory study looks at how seven South African "citizens"¹ talk about African "foreigners"¹ in South Africa, using a synthetic discursive lens which analyses the Self-Other relationships which are constructed. Subject positioning, ideological dilemmas and rhetorical work are used as analytical tools. Analysis reveals that a discursive relationship of common humanity leads to compassionate inclusivity, but the positioning of African "foreigners" as inferior/serviceable or threatening justifies their exploitation or exclusion, whilst enabling participants to "dodge the identity of prejudice". National identity was constructed as one of fragile superiority over other African countries, resulting in a perceived need to protect the nation from outsiders. Participants took up familial identity positions, and this discursive mobilisation of the metaphor of "family" mirrors ideological models of the function of the state as an imaginary agency responsible for the protection and care of the citizenry."Missing in action": the significance of bodies in African bereavement rituals]]>http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1015-60462013000100003&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es
The authors of this paper offer a turn to embodiment in exploring the role of bodies in "black", South African bereavement rituals and mourning practices². This paper is born out of the trauma de-briefing program for the crew of a South African Navy vessel after the death of a comrade during an anti-piracy operation off the east coast of southern Africa. Herein we attempt to grapple with the unique complexities of the physical presence of bodies in African mourning rituals in the context of the deceased's body being "lost at sea". First we establish the operational context of naval deployment and the loss of the sailor's body at sea. Second we outline some of the corporeal configurations of black South African bereavement rituals. Here we draw specific attention to bodies in processes of grief and mourning, for the deceased and mourners. Lastly, drawing on testimonies from four South African Navy personnel present during the operational deployment, we highlight the significant role played by bodies in African bereavement rituals. In sum, we suggest the need to re-matter the materiality of bodies in psychological literature on African bereavement rituals.Using Appreciative Inquiry (AI) to evaluate an education support NGO in Soweto]]>http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1015-60462013000100004&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the application of the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) approach while evaluating an emerging Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) in Soweto, South Africa. The AI approach was originally introduced as an organisational development tool intended to shift the focus from deficit-based evaluation to an appreciative stance that considered the organisation when it functioned at its peak. The use of this approach was motivated by the belief that it would provide emerging NGOs with an acknowledged method of implementing their development agendas in the face of donor or governmental organisational resistance. While the AI approach intends to provide a broad platform for stakeholder interaction, the experience of this study was that it requires a significant amount of political resources to include stakeholders from outside the organisation to participate actively. Our experience of the AI approach was that it seems to be difficult to implement in an environment where there are low levels of trust and cohesion among the stakeholders. The paper concludes with suggestions for researchers, especially novice researchers, entering the field with the intention of utilising AI in the Soweto context.http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1015-60462013000100005&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es